Channel equalizer and method of processing broadcast signal in receiving system

ABSTRACT

A channel equalizer for use in a receiving system includes an overlap unit, a first estimator, an interpolator, and a second estimator. The overlap unit overlaps a group of normal data packets including a head, a body, and a tail, and a known data region is periodically repeated in the body. The first estimator estimates CIRs of the known data regions according to a first algorithm, and the interpolator estimates CIRs of normal data regions in the body by interpolating the estimated CIRs of the known data regions. The second estimator estimates CIRs of normal data regions in the head and tail according to a second algorithm different from the first algorithm. A calculator calculates equalization coefficients based on the estimated CIRs and a compensator multiplies the overlapped data with the coefficients. A save unit saves the compensated data.

This application claims the benefit of the Korean Patent Application No.10-2006-0021859, filed on Mar. 8, 2006, which is hereby incorporated byreference as if fully set forth herein. Also, this application claimsthe benefit of the Korean Patent Application No. 10-2006-0089736, filedon Sep. 15, 2006, which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fullyset forth herein. This application also claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 60/883,501, filed on Jan. 4, 2007, which ishereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a digital telecommunications system,and more particularly, to a channel equalizer and a method of processingbroadcast signal in a receiving system. Although the present inventionis suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularlysuitable for receiving digital broadcast signal.

2. Discussion of the Related Art

Presently, the technology for processing digital signals is beingdeveloped at a vast rate, and, as a larger number of the population usesthe Internet, digital electric appliances, computers, and the Internetare being integrated. Therefore, in order to meet with the variousrequirements of the users, a system that can transmit diversesupplemental information in addition to video/audio data through adigital television channel needs to be developed.

Some users may assume that supplemental data broadcasting would beapplied by using a PC card or a portable device having a simple in-doorantenna attached thereto. However, when used indoors, the intensity ofthe signals may decrease due to a blockage caused by the walls ordisturbance caused by approaching or proximate mobile objects.Accordingly, the quality of the received digital signals may bedeteriorated due to a ghost effect and noise caused by reflected waves.However, unlike the general video/audio data, when transmitting thesupplemental data, the data that is to be transmitted should have a lowerror ratio. More specifically, in case of the video/audio data, errorsthat are not perceived or acknowledged through the eyes or ears of theuser can be ignored, since they do not cause any or much trouble.Conversely, in case of the supplemental data (e.g., program executionfile, stock information, etc.), an error even in a single bit may causea serious problem. Therefore, a system highly resistant to ghost effectsand noise is required to be developed.

The supplemental data are generally transmitted by a time-divisionmethod through the same channel as the video/audio data. However, withthe advent of digital broadcasting, digital television receiving systemsthat receive only video/audio data are already supplied to the market.Therefore, the supplemental data that are transmitted through the samechannel as the video/audio data should not influence the conventionalreceiving systems that are provided in the market. In other words, thismay be defined as the compatibility of broadcast system, and thesupplemental data broadcast system should be compatible with thebroadcast system. Herein, the supplemental data may also be referred toas enhanced data. Furthermore, in a poor channel environment, thereceiving performance of the conventional receiving system may bedeteriorated. More specifically, resistance to changes in channels andnoise is more highly required when using portable and/or mobilereceiving systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a channel equalizerand a method of processing broadcast signal in a receiving system thatsubstantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations anddisadvantages of the related art.

An object of the present invention is to provide a channel equalizer anda method of processing broadcast signal in a receiving system that issuitable for receiving supplemental data and that is highly resistant tonoise.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a channelequalizer and a method of processing broadcast signal in a receivingsystem that can use pre-defined known data that are already known by areceiving system and/or a transmitting system, thereby enhancing thereceiving performance of the receiving system.

Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will beset forth in part in the description which follows and in part willbecome apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art uponexamination of the following or may be learned from practice of theinvention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may berealized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in thewritten description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with thepurpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, achannel equalizer for use in a receiving system includes an overlapunit, a first estimator, an interpolator, a second estimator, acalculator, a compensator, and a save unit. The overlap unit overlaps agroup of normal data packets (enhanced or main data packets) in abroadcast signal. The group of normal data packets includes a head, abody, and a tail. A known data sequence is periodically included in thebody. The first estimator estimates channel impulse responses (CIRs) ofthe repeated known data regions in the body according to a Least Square(LS) algorithm. The interpolator then estimates CIRs of normal dataregions in the body by interpolating the estimated CIRs of the knowndata regions. The second estimator estimates CIRs of normal data regions(enhanced or main data regions) in the head and tail according to aLeast Mean Square (LMS) algorithm. The calculator calculatesequalization coefficients based on the estimated CIRs of the known dataregions and the normal data regions in the head, body, and tail. Thecompensator compensates channel distortion of the overlapped data bymultiplying with the equalization coefficients in a frequency domain.The save unit finally saves the compensated data.

The channel equalizer may further include a decision unit for outputtingdecision values of the saved data. The second estimator estimates theCIRs of the normal data regions in the head and tail based on thesedecision values. In addition, the second estimator may estimate initialCIRs of normal data regions in the head by using a CIR of at least onenormal data region in the body adjacent to the head. Similarly, it mayfurther estimate initial CIRs of normal data regions in the tail byusing a CIR of at least one normal data region in the body adjacent tothe tail.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description of the present invention areexemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide furtherexplanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this application, illustrate embodiments of the invention andtogether with the description serve to explain the principle of theinvention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a data frame structure after datainterleaving in a transmitting system according to the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a channel equalizer according toan embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a conceptual diagram of a general transmissionchannel model;

FIG. 4 illustrates a detailed block diagram of an example of a secondchannel estimator of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram showing the structure of ademodulating unit included a receiving system according to an embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of a transmitting system according toanother embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram showing a general structure of ademodulating unit within a receiving system according to anotherembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram showing the structure of a receivingsystem according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram showing the structure of a receivingsystem according to another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be usedthroughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts. In addition,although the terms used in the present invention are selected fromgenerally known and used terms, some of the terms mentioned in thedescription of the present invention have been selected by the applicantat his or her discretion, the detailed meanings of which are describedin relevant parts of the description herein. Furthermore, it is requiredthat the present invention is understood, not simply by the actual termsused but by the meaning of each term lying within.

The present invention relates to performing channel equalization byusing the known data known already known by the transmitter andreceiver. More specifically, in the digital broadcast transmittingsystem that multiplexes and transmits the enhanced data havinginformation with the main data, known data that are already known by thetransmitter and receiver may be inserted in an enhanced data packetsection and then transmitted. In order to enhance the receivingperformance, an error correction signal having a higher performance thanthat of the main data section is applied to the data transmitted fromthe enhanced data packet section. At this point, the known data may beinserted in the enhanced data packet section in various formats.Additionally, the known data may be used in the digital broadcastreceiving system for carrier recovery, frame synchronization recovery,and channel equalization processes.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a data frame structure corresponding tothe output of a data interleaver (not shown) in a digital broadcasttransmitting system according to the present invention. Particularly,FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a predetermined number of data packetsgathered (or grouped) so as to be divided in to head, body, and tailareas. Herein, the head, body, and tail areas are each divided in52-packet units. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of each area beingconfigured of 52 packets, because the data interleaver operatesperiodically after a cycle of packets. With respect to the output of thedata interleaver, the body area is allocated to include at least aportion or the entire area in which enhanced data are consecutivelyoutputted. In the body area, the known data are periodically inserted ata constant rate. The head area is located before the body area, and thetail area is located after the body area. For example, referring to FIG.1, the main data are not included in the body area, and the known dataare inserted after each 6-packet (or segment) cycle. Furthermore, theknown data are additionally inserted at the beginning of the body area.

In this case, the body area may show a stronger receiving performance,since there is no interference from the main data. The enhanced data ofthe head and tail areas are mixed with the main data in accordance withthe output order from the interleaver. Accordingly, the receivingperformance in the head and tail areas is more deteriorated than in thebody area. Therefore, when known data are inserted in the enhanced dataand then transmitted, and when consecutive and long known data are to beperiodically inserted in the enhanced data, the known data may beinserted in the body area. This is because, based upon the output orderof the data interleaver, the enhanced data are not mixed with the maindata. At this point, known data having a predetermined length may beperiodically inserted in the body area. However, it is difficult toperiodically insert known data in the head and tail areas, and it isalso difficult to insert consecutive and long known data.

At this point, in the body area, the known data are allocated inaccordance with a constant cycle (or period). Therefore, known data maybe used to estimate a channel impulse response (CIR) or also be used toperform channel equalization with stability. Unlike in the body area,sufficiently long known data cannot be inserted periodically in the headand tail areas. Therefore, it is difficult to estimate the CIR using theknown data in the head and tail areas. Eventually, the equalizationperformance becomes deteriorated in the head and tail areas. For this,in the body area, wherein known data are allocated based on a regularcycle, the present invention uses the known data to estimate the CIR,thereby performing the channel equalization process. Also, in thehead/tail areas, the present invention uses the decision value of theequalized data so as to estimate the CIR, thereby performing the channelequalization process.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in thebody area, the present invention uses the known data in order toestimate the CIR by using a least square (LS) method, thereby performingthe channel equalization process. On the other hand, in the head/tailareas, the present invention estimates the CIR by using a least meansquare (LMS) method, thereby performing the channel equalizationprocess. More specifically, since the periodic known data do not existin the head/tail areas, as in the body area, the same channelequalization process as that of the body area cannot be performed in thehead/tail areas. Therefore, the channel equalization process may only beperformed by using the LMS method.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram showing an example of the channelequalizer according to the present invention. Herein, an overlap & savemethod is used to perform linear convolutional operation in thefrequency domain. Referring to FIG. 2, the channel equalizer includes anoverlap unit 201, a first fast fourier transform (FFT) unit 202, adistortion compensator 203, an inverse fast fourier transform (IFFT)unit 204, a save unit 205, a first channel estimator 206, a CIRinterpolator 207, a decision unit 208, a second channel estimator 210, aselection unit 211, a second FFT unit 212, and a MMSE coefficientcalculator 213. Herein, any device performed complex numbermultiplication may be used as the distortion compensator 203.

In the channel equalizer having the above-described structure, as shownin FIG. 2, the overlap unit 201 overlaps the data being inputted to thechannel equalizer to a predetermined overlapping ratio and then outputsthe overlapped data to the first FFT unit 202. The first FFT unit 202converts (or transforms) the overlapped data of the time domain tooverlapped data of the frequency domain by using fast fourier transform(FFT). Then, the converted data are outputted to the distortioncompensator 203. The distortion converter 203 performs complexmultiplication on the equalization coefficient calculated from the MMSEcoefficient calculator 213 and the overlapped data of the frequencydomain, thereby compensating the channel distortion of the overlappeddata being outputted from the first FFT unit 202. Thereafter, thedistortion-compensated data are outputted to the IFFT unit 204. The IFFTunit 204 performs inverse fast fourier transform (IFFT) on thedistortion-compensated overlapped data, so as to convert thecorresponding data back to data (i.e., overlapped data) of the timedomain. Subsequently, the converted data are outputted to the save unit205. The save unit 205 extracts only the valid data from the overlappeddata of the time domain. Then, the save unit 205 outputs the extractedvalid data for a data decoding process and, at the same time, outputsthe extracted valid data to the decision unit 208 for a channelestimation process.

The decision unit 208 selects one of a plurality of decision values(e.g., 8 decision values) that is most approximate to the equalized dataand outputs the selected decision value to the select unit 209. Herein,a multiplexer may be used as the select unit 209. In a general datasection, the select unit 209 selects the decision value of the decisionunit 208. Alternatively, in a known data section, the select unit 209selects the known data and outputs the selected known data to the secondchannel estimator 210. Meanwhile, the first channel estimator 206 usesthe data that are being inputted in the known data section and the knowndata so as to estimate the CIR.

Thereafter, the first channel estimator 206 outputs the estimated CIR tothe CIR interpolator 207. Herein, the known data correspond to referenceknown data created during the known data section by the receiving systemin accordance to an agreement between the transmitting system and thereceiving system. At this point, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention, the first channel estimator 206 uses the LS method toestimate the CIR. The LS estimation method calculates a crosscorrelation value p between the known data that have passed through thechannel during the known data section and the known data that arealready known by the receiving end. Then, a cross correlation matrix Rof the known data is calculated. Subsequently, a matrix operation isperformed on R⁻¹·p so that the cross correlation portion within thecross correlation value p between the received data and the initialknown data, thereby estimating the CIR of the transmission channel.

The CIR interpolater 207 receives the CIR from the first channelestimator 205. And, in the section between two sets of known data, theCIR is interpolated in accordance with a pre-determined interpolationmethod. Then, the interpolated CIR is outputted. At this point, thepre-determined interpolation method corresponds to a method ofestimating a particular set of data at an unknown point by using a setof data known by a particular function. For example, such methodincludes a linear interpolation method. The linear interpolation methodis only one of the most simple interpolation methods. A variety of otherinterpolation methods may be used instead of the above-described linearinterpolation method. It is apparent that the present invention is notlimited only to the example set forth in the description of the presentinvention. More specifically, the CIR interpolator 207 uses the CIR thatis being inputted in order to estimate the CIR of the section that doesnot include any known data by using the pre-determined interpolationmethod. Thereafter, the estimated CIR is outputted to the select unit211.

The second channel estimator 210 uses the input data of the channelequalizer and the output data of the select unit 209 in order toestimate the CIR. Then, the second channel estimator 210 outputs theestimated CIR to the select unit 211. At this point, according to anembodiment of the present invention, the CIR is estimated by using theLMS method. The LMS estimation method will be described in detail in alater process. In the body area, the select unit 211 selects the CIRoutputted from the CIR interpolator 207. And, in the head/tail areas,the select unit 211 selects the CIR outputted from the second channelestimator 210. Thereafter, the select unit 211 outputs the selected CIRto the second FFT unit 212.

The second FFT unit 212 converts the CIR that is being inputted to a CIRof the frequency domain, which is then outputted to the MMSE coefficientcalculator 213. The MMSE coefficient calculator 213 uses the CIR of thefrequency domain that is being inputted, so as to calculate theequalization coefficient and to output the calculated equalizationcoefficient to the distortion compensator 203. At this point, the MMSEcoefficient calculator 213 calculates a channel equalization coefficientof the frequency domain that can provide minimum mean square error(MMSE) from the CIR of the frequency domain. At this point, the secondchannel estimator 210 may use the CIR estimated in the body area as theCIR at the beginning of the head and tail areas. For example, the lastCIR value of the body area may be used as the CIR value at the beginningof the tail area. Accordingly, the convergence speed of the head andtail areas may be reduced.

The basic principle of estimating the CIR by using the LMS method in thesecond channel estimator 210 corresponds to receiving the output of anunknown transmission channel and to updating (or renewing) thecoefficient of an adaptive filter (not shown) so that the differencevalue between the output value of the unknown channel and the outputvalue of the adaptive filter is minimized. More specifically, thecoefficient value of the adaptive filter is renewed so that the inputdata of the channel equalizer is equal to the output value of theadaptive filter (not shown) included in the second channel estimator210. Thereafter, the filter coefficient is outputted as the CIR aftereach FFT cycle.

FIG. 3 illustrates a conceptual diagram of a general transmissionchannel model. Referring to FIG. 3, when x(n) refers to the transmissiondata, a modeling process may be performed on the transmission channel byusing an adder, which adds a finite impulse response (FIR) filter havingan impulse response value of h(n) and a noise element n(n). When theoutput of this channel is inputted to the channel equalizer, the inputdata y(n) of the channel equalizer can be calculated by using Equation 1shown below.

y(n)=x(n)*h(n)+n(n) (wherein, n=0˜L−1)  Equation 1

As shown in Equation 1, * indicates a convolution operation, Lrepresents the length of the channel. The second channel estimator 210uses the LMS estimation method to estimate the channel. Herein, thesecond channel estimator 210 uses the output data 24/0 and coefficientw(n) of the select unit 209, so as to calculate the estimation valueŷ(n) of the channel equalizer by using Equation 2 shown below.

ŷ(n)={circumflex over (x)}(n)*w(n)  Equation 2

Herein, {circumflex over (x)}(n) represents the decision value of thedata outputted from the channel equalizer in a general data section.Alternatively, {circumflex over (x)}(n) represents the known data in theknown data section. Furthermore, a difference between the input data ofthe channel equalizer calculated by using Equation 1 and the estimationvalue of the data inputted to the channel equalizer is calculated. Then,the calculated difference value is used as an error value e(n), therebyrenewing (or updating) the filter coefficient {right arrow over (w)}(n)by using Equation 3 shown below.

e(n)=y(n)−ŷ(n)

{right arrow over (w)}(n+1)={right arrow over (w)}(n)+μ·{right arrowover (x)}(n−1)e(n−1)  Equation 3

Herein, the second channel estimator 210 continues to renew the filtercoefficient {right arrow over (w)}(n) by using the above-describedEquation 3 and, then, outputs the filter coefficient {right arrow over(w)}(n) as the CIR after each FFT cycle.

FIG. 4 illustrates a detailed block diagram of an example of the secondchannel estimator 210 shown in FIG. 2. Referring to FIG. 4, the secondchannel estimator 210 includes a delay unit T, a multiplier, and acoefficient renewal unit for each tab. Herein, the delay unit Tsequentially delays the output data {circumflex over (x)}(n) of theselect unit 209. The multiplier multiplies respective output dataoutputted from each delay unit T with error data e(n). The coefficientrenewal unit renews the coefficient by using the output corresponding toeach multiplier. Herein, the multipliers that are being provided as manyas the number of tabs will be referred to as a first multiplying unitfor simplicity. Furthermore, the second channel estimator 210 furtherincludes a plurality of multipliers each multiplying the output data ofthe select unit 209 and the output data of the delay unit T (wherein theoutput data of the last delay unit are excluded) with the output datacorresponding to each respective coefficient renewal unit. Thesemultipliers are also provided as many as the number of tabs. This groupof multipliers will be referred to as a second multiplying unit forsimplicity.

The second channel estimator 210 further includes an adder and asubtractor. Herein, the adder adds all of the data outputted from eachmultipliers included in the second multiplier unit. Then, the addedvalue is outputted as the estimation value ŷ(n) of the data inputted tothe channel equalizer. The subtractor calculates the difference betweenthe output data ŷ(n) of the adder and the input data y(n) of the channelequalizer. Thereafter, the calculated difference value is outputted asthe error data e(n). Referring to FIG. 4, in a general data section, thedecision value of the equalized data is inputted to the first delay unitincluded in the second channel estimator 210 and to the first multiplierincluded in the second multiplier. In the known data section, the knowndata are inputted to the first delay unit included in the second channelestimator 210 and to the first multiplier included in the secondmultiplier unit. The input data {circumflex over (x)}(n) aresequentially delayed by passing through a number of serially connecteddelay units T, the number corresponding to the number of tabs. Theoutput data of each delay unit T and the error data e(n) are multipliedby each corresponding multiplier included in the first multiplier unit.Thereafter, the coefficients are renewed by each respective coefficientrenewal unit as shown in Equation 3.

Each coefficient that is renewed by the corresponding coefficientrenewal unit is multiplied with the input data the output data{circumflex over (x)}(n) and also with the output data of each delayunit T with the exception of the last delay. Thereafter, the multipliedvalue is inputted to the adder. The adder then adds all of the outputdata outputted from the second multiplier unit and outputs the addedvalue to the subtractor as the estimation value ŷ(n) of the input dataof the channel equalizer. The subtractor calculates a difference valuebetween the estimation value ŷ(n) and the input data y(n) of the channelequalizer. The difference value is then outputted to each multiplier ofthe first multiplier unit as the error data e(n). At this point, theerror data e(n) is outputted to each multiplier of the first multiplierunit by passing through each respective delay unit T. As describedabove, the coefficient of the adaptive filter is continuously renewed.And, the output of each coefficient renewal unit is outputted as the CIRof the second channel estimator 210 after each FFT cycle.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a demodulating unit included areceiving system having the above-described channel equalizer adoptedtherein. The demodulating unit shown in FIG. 5 is merely an examplegiven to simplify the understanding of the present invention. Anydemodulating unit that can adopt the above-described channelequalization method may be used in the present invention. Therefore, theembodiments of the present invention are not limited to the examples setforth herein.

Referring to FIG. 5, the demodulating unit includes a demodulator 410, achannel equalizer 420, a known sequence detector 430, and an errorcorrection unit 440. Herein, the error correction unit 440 includes aViterbi decoder 441, a data deinterleaver 442, a RSdecoder/non-systematic RS parity remover 443, a derandomzer 444, a maindata packet remover 445, a packet deformatter 446, and an enhanced dataprocessor 447. More specifically, a frequency that is received through aparticular channel is tuned and digitalized so as to be outputted to thedemodulator 410 and the known sequence detector 430. The demodulator 410uses the known data on the tuned channel frequency so as to performcarrier recovery and timing recovery, thereby create baseband signals.Thereafter, the baseband signals are outputted to the channel equalizer420 and the known sequence detector 430.

The channel equalizer 420 uses the above-described method to estimatethe CIR. Then, the channel equalizer 420 uses the estimated CIR tocompensate for the distortion occurring in the channel including thedemodulated signals. Thereafter, the distortion-compensated data areoutputted to the error correction unit 440. More specifically, when aplurality of enhanced data packets are respectively transmitted tohierarchically divided head, body, and tail areas, the CIRscorresponding to each of the head/body/tail areas are estimated inaccordance with the information of each area. Then, channel equalizationis performed using the estimated CIRs. For example, the LS method isused to estimate the CIR in the body area, and the LMS method is used toestimate the CIR in the head/tail areas. Thereafter, the channelequalization process is performed accordingly.

The known data detector and generator 440 detects the known data, whichhave been inserted from the transmitting system, from the input/outputdata of the demodulator 410 (i.e., the data prior to demodulation or thedata after demodulation). Thereafter, the detected known data areoutputted to the demodulator 410 and the channel equalizer 420. TheViterbi decoder 441 of the error correction unit 440 Viterbi-decodes thedata that are outputted from the channel equalizer 420. At this point,the 8-level decision values decided by the Viterbi decoder 441 areprovided to the channel equalizer 420, thereby enhancing the equalizingperformance. The data deinterleaver 442 performs an inverse process ofthe data interleaver included in the transmitting system on the inputdata. Thereafter, the data deinterleaver 442 outputs the deinterleaveddata to the RS decoder/non-systematic RS parity remover 443. If thereceived data packet corresponds to the main data packet, the RSdecoder/non-systematic RS parity remover 443 performs a systematic RSdecoding process. Alternatively, if the received data packet correspondsto the enhanced data packet, the RS decoder/non-systematic RS parityremover 443 removes the non-systematic RS parity byte that has beeninserted in the enhanced data packet. Thereafter, the RSdecoder/non-systematic RS parity remover 443 outputs the processed datato the derandomizer 444.

The derandomizer 444 performs a derandomizing process on the output ofthe RS decoder/non-systematic RS parity remover 443. Afterwards, thederandomizer 444 inserts a MPEG synchronization byte at the beginning ofeach packet so as to output the processed data in 188-byte packet units.The output of the derandomizer 444 is outputted to the main MPEG decoder(not shown) and to the main data packet remover 445 at the same time.Meanwhile, the main data packet remover 445 removes a 188-byte unit maindata packet from the output of the derandomizer 444 and outputs theprocessed data to the packet deformatter 446. The packet deformatter 446removes the MPEG header, which was inserted to the enhanced data packetby the transmitting system, and the known data from the enhanced datapacket outputted from the main data packet remover 445. The processedenhanced data packet is then outputted to the enhanced data processor447. The enhanced data processor 447 performs null data removing,additional error correction coding, and deinterleaving processes on theoutput of the packet deformatter 446. Thus, the finally processedenhanced data are outputted.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram showing the structure of atransmitting system according to an embodiment of the present invention.The digital broadcast transmitting system includes a pre-processor 510,a packet multiplexer 521, a data randomizer 522, a Reed-Solomon (RS)encoder/non-systematic RS encoder 523, a data interleaver 524, a paritybyte replacer 525, a non-systematic RS encoder 526, a frame multiplexer528, and a transmitting unit 530. The pre-processor 510 includes anenhanced data randomizer 511, a RS frame encoder 512, a block processor513, a group formatter 514, a data deinterleaver 515, and a packetformatter 516.

In the present invention having the above-described structure, main dataare inputted to the packet multiplexer 521. Enhanced data are inputtedto the enhanced data randomizer 511 of the pre-processor 510, wherein anadditional coding process is performed so that the present invention canrespond swiftly and appropriately against noise and change in channel.The enhanced data randomizer 511 randomizes the received enhanced dataand outputs the randomized enhanced data to the RS frame encoder 512. Atthis point, by having the enhanced data randomizer 511 perform therandomizing process on the enhanced data, the randomizing process on theenhanced data by the data randomizer 522 in a later process may beomitted. Either the randomizer of the conventional broadcast system maybe used as the randomizer for randomizing the enhanced data, or anyother type of randomizer may be used herein.

The RS frame encoder 512 receives the randomized enhanced data andperforms at least one of an error correction coding process and an errordetection coding process on the received data. Accordingly, by providingrobustness to the enhanced data, the data can scatter group error thatmay occur due to a change in the frequency environment. Thus, the datacan respond appropriately to the frequency environment which is verypoor and liable to change. The RS frame multiplexer 512 also includes aprocess of mixing in row units many sets of enhanced data each having apre-determined size. By performing an error correction coding process onthe inputted enhanced data, the RS frame encoder 512 adds data requiredfor the error correction and, then, performs an error detection codingprocess, thereby adding data required for the error detection process.The error correction coding uses the RS coding method, and the errordetection coding uses the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) coding method.When performing the RS coding process, parity data required for theerror correction are generated. And, when performing the CRC codingprocess, CRC data required for the error detection are generated.

The RS frame encoder 512 performs CRC coding on the RS coded enhanceddata in order to create the CRC code. The CRC code that is generated bythe CRC coding process may be used to indicate whether the enhanced datahave been damaged by an error while being transmitted through thechannel. The present invention may adopt other types of error detectioncoding methods, apart from the CRC coding method, and may also use theerror correction coding method so as to enhance the overall errorcorrection ability of the receiving system. For example, assuming thatthe size of one RS frame is 187*N bytes, that (235,187)-RS codingprocess is performed on each column within the RS frame, and that a CRCcoding process using a 2-byte (i.e., 16-bit) CRC checksum, then a RSframe having the size of 187*N bytes is expanded to a RS frame of235*(N+2) bytes. The RS frame expanded by the RS frame encoder 512 isinputted to the block processor 513. The block processor 513 codes theRS-coded and CRC-coded enhanced data at a coding rate of G/H. Then, theblock processor 513 outputs the G/H-rate coded enhanced data to thegroup formatter 514. In order to do so, the block processor 513identifies the block data bytes being inputted from the RS frame encoder512 as bits.

The block processor 513 may receive supplemental information data suchas signaling information, which include information on the system, andidentifies the supplemental information data bytes as data bits. Herein,the supplemental information data, such as the signaling information,may equally pass through the enhanced data randomizer 511 and the RSframe encoder 512 so as to be inputted to the block processor 513.Alternatively, the supplemental information data may be directlyinputted to the block processor 513 without passing through the enhanceddata randomizer 511 and the RS frame encoder 512. The signalinginformation corresponds to information required for receiving andprocessing data included in the data group in the receiving system. Suchsignaling information includes data group information, multiplexinginformation, and burst information.

As a G/H-rate encoder, the block processor 513 codes the inputted dataat a coding rate of G/H and then outputs the G/H-rate coded data. Forexample, if 1 bit of the input data is coded to 2 bits and outputted,then G is equal to 1 and H is equal to 2 (i.e., G=1 and H=2).Alternatively, if 1 bit of the input data is coded to 4 bits andoutputted, then G is equal to 1 and H is equal to 4 (i.e., G=1 and H=4).As an example of the present invention, it is assumed that the blockprocessor 513 performs a coding process at a coding rate of ½ (alsoreferred to as a ½-rate coding process) or a coding process at a codingrate of ¼ (also referred to as a ¼-rate coding process). Morespecifically, the block processor 513 codes the received enhanced dataand supplemental information data, such as the signaling information, ateither a coding rate of ½ or a coding rate of ¼. Thereafter, thesupplemental information data, such as the signaling information, areidentified and processed as enhanced data.

Since the ¼-rate coding process has a higher coding rate than the ½-ratecoding process, greater error correction ability may be provided.Therefore, in a later process, by allocating the ¼-rate coded data in anarea with deficient receiving performance within the group formatter514, and by allocating the ½-rate coded data in an area with excellentreceiving performance, the difference in the overall performance may bereduced. More specifically, in case of performing the ½-rate codingprocess, the block processor 513 receives 1 bit and codes the received 1bit to 2 bits (i.e., 1 symbol). Then, the block processor 513 outputsthe processed 2 bits (or 1 symbol). On the other hand, in case ofperforming the ¼-rate coding process, the block processor 513 receives 1bit and codes the received 1 bit to 4 bits (i.e., 2 symbols). Then, theblock processor 513 outputs the processed 4 bits (or 2 symbols).Additionally, the block processor 513 performs a block interleavingprocess in symbol units on the symbol-coded data. Subsequently, theblock processor 513 converts to bytes the data symbols that areblock-interleaved and have the order rearranged.

The group formatter 514 inserts the enhanced data outputted from theblock processor 513 (herein, the enhanced data may include supplementalinformation data such as signaling information including transmissioninformation) in a corresponding area within the data group, which isconfigured according to a pre-defined rule. Furthermore, in relationwith the data deinterleaving process, various types of places holders orknown data are also inserted in corresponding areas within the datagroup. At this point, the data group may be described by at least onehierarchical area. Herein, the data allocated to the each area may varydepending upon the characteristic of each hierarchical area.Additionally, each group is configured to include a fieldsynchronization signal.

The present invention shows an example of the data group being dividedinto three hierarchical areas: a head area, a body area, and a tailarea. Accordingly, in the data group that is inputted for the datadeinterleaving process, data are first inputted to the head area, theninputted to the body area, and inputted finally to the tail area. In theexample of the present invention, the head, body, and tail areas areconfigured so that the body area is not mixed with the main data areawithin the data group. Furthermore, in the present invention, the head,body, and tail areas may each be divided into lower hierarchical areas.For example, the head area may be divided into 3 lower hierarchicalareas: a far head (PH) area, a middle head (MH) area, and a near head(NH) area. The body area may be divided into 4 lower hierarchical areas:a first lower body (B1) area, a second lower body (B2) area, a thirdlower body (B3) area, and a fourth lower body (B4) area. And, finally,the tail area may be divided into 2 lower hierarchical areas: a far tail(FT) area and a near tail (NT) area.

In the example of the present invention, the group formatter 514 insertsthe enhanced data being outputted from the block processor 513 to themiddle head (MH) area, the near head (NH) area, the first to fourthlower body (B1 to B4) areas, and the near tail (NT) area. Herein, thetype of enhanced data may vary depending upon the characteristic of eacharea. The data group is divided into a plurality of areas so that eacharea may be used for different purposes. More specifically, areas havingless interference with the main data may show more enhanced receivingperformance as compared with area having more interference with the maindata. Additionally, when using the system in which the known data areinserted in the data group and then transmitted, and when a long set ofconsecutive known data is to be periodically (or regularly) inserted inthe enhanced data, the body area is capable of regularly receiving suchenhanced data having a predetermined length. However, since the enhanceddata may be mixed with the main data in the head and tail areas, it isdifficult to regularly insert the known data in these areas, and it isalso difficult to insert long known data sets that are consecutive inthese areas.

Details such as the size of the data group, the number of hierarchicalareas within the data group and the size of each hierarchical area, andthe number of enhanced data bytes that may be inserted in eachhierarchical area may vary depending upon the design of the systemdesigner. Therefore, the above-described embodiment is merely an examplethat can facilitate the description of the present invention. In thegroup formatter 514, the data group may be configured to include aposition (or place) in which the field synchronization signal is to beinserted. When assuming that the data group is divided into a pluralityof hierarchical areas as described above, the block processor 513 maycode the data that are to be inserted in each area at different codingrates.

In the present invention, based upon the areas that are each expected toshow different performance after the equalization process when using thechannel information that may be used for the channel equalizationprocess in the receiving system, a different coding rate may be appliedto each of these areas. For example, the block processor 513 codes theenhanced data that are to be inserted in the near head (NH) area and thefirst to fourth lower body (B1 to B4) areas at a ½-coding rate.Thereafter, the group formatter 514 may insert the ½-rate coded enhanceddata in the near head (NH) area and the first to fourth lower body (B1to B4) areas. On the other hand, the block processor 513 codes theenhanced data that are to be inserted in the middle head (MH) area andthe near tail (NT) area at a ¼-coding rate, which has greater errorcorrection ability than the ½-coding rate. Subsequently, the groupformatter 514 may insert the ½-rate coded enhanced data in the middlehead (MH) area and the near tail (NT) area. Furthermore, the blockprocessor 513 codes the enhanced data that are to be inserted in the farhead (FH) area and the far tail (FT) area at a coding rate having evengreater error correction ability than the ¼-coding rate. Thereafter, thegroup formatter 514 may inserts the coded enhanced data either in thefar head (FH) and far tail (FT) areas or in a reserved area for futureusage.

Apart from the enhanced data, the group formatter 513 may also insertsupplemental information data such as signaling information indicatingthe overall transmission information in the data group. Also, apart fromthe coded enhanced data outputted from the block processor 513, and inrelation with the data deinterleaving process in a later process, thegroup formatter 514 may also insert a MPEG header place holder, anon-systematic RS parity place holder, and a main data place holder inthe data group. Herein, the main data group place holder is insertedbecause the enhanced data and the main data may be mixed in the head andtail areas depending upon the input of the data deinterleaver. Forexample, based upon the output of the data after being deinterleaved,the place holder for the MPEG header may be allocated to the front ofeach data packet. Additionally, the group formatter 514 may eitherinsert known data generated according to a pre-defined rule, or insert aknown data place holder for inserting known data in a later process.Furthermore, a place holder for the initialization of the trellisencoder module 527 is inserted in a corresponding area. For example, theinitialization data place holder may be inserted at the beginning (orfront) of the data place sequence.

The output of the group formatter 514 is inputted to the datadeinterleaver 515. And, the data deinterleaver 515 performs an inverseprocess of the data interleaver deinterleaving the data and place holderwithin the data group being outputted from the group formatter 514.Thereafter, the data deinterleaver 515 outputs the deinterelaved data tothe packet formatter 516. Among the data deinterleaved and inputted, thepacket formatter 516 removes the main data place holder and RS parityplace holder that were allocated for the deinterleaving process from theinputted deinterleaved data. Thereafter, the remaining portion of thecorresponding data is grouped, and 4 bytes of MPEG header are insertedtherein. The 4-byte MPEG header is configured of a 1-byte MPEGsynchronization byte added to the 3-byte MPEG header place holder.

When the group formatter 514 inserts the known data place holder, thepacket formatter 516 may either insert actual known data in the knowndata place holder or output the known data place holder without anychange or modification for a replacement insertion in a later process.Afterwards, the packet formatter 516 divides the data within theabove-described packet-formatted data group into 188-byte unit enhanceddata packets (i.e., MPEG TS packets), which are then provided to thepacket multiplexer 521. The packet multiplexer 521 multiplexes the188-byte unit enhanced data packet and main data packet outputted fromthe packet formatter 516 according to a pre-defined multiplexing method.Subsequently, the multiplexed data packets are outputted to the datarandomizer 522. The multiplexing method may be modified or altered inaccordance with diverse variables of the system design.

As an example of the multiplexing method of the packet multiplexer 521,the enhanced data burst section and the main data section may beidentified along a time axis (or a chronological axis) and may bealternately repeated. At this point, the enhanced data burst section maytransmit at least one data group, and the main data section may transmitonly the main data. The enhanced data burst section may also transmitthe main data. If the enhanced data are outputted in a burst structure,as described above, the receiving system receiving only the enhanceddata may turn the power on only during the burst section so as toreceive the enhanced data, and may turn the power off during the maindata section in which main data are transmitted, so as to prevent themain data from being received, thereby reducing the power consumption ofthe receiving system.

When the data being inputted correspond to the main data packet, thedata randomizer 522 performs the same randomizing process of theconventional randomizer. More specifically, the MPEG synchronizationbyte included in the main data packet is discarded and a pseudo randombyte generated from the remaining 187 bytes is used so as to randomizethe data. Thereafter, the randomized data are outputted to the RSencoder/non-systematic RS encoder 523. However, when the inputted datacorrespond to the enhanced data packet, the MPEG synchronization byte ofthe 4-byte MPEG header included in the enhanced data packet isdiscarded, and data randomizing is performed only on the remaining3-byte MPEG header. Randomizing is not performed on the remainingportion of the enhanced data. Instead, the remaining portion of theenhanced data is outputted to the RS encoder/non-systematic RS encoder523. This is because the randomizing process has already been performedon the enhanced data by the enhanced data randomizer 511 in an earlierprocess. Herein, a data randomizing process may or may not be performedon the known data (or known data place holder) and the initializationdata place holder included in the enhanced data packet.

The RS encoder/non-systematic RS encoder 523 RS-codes the datarandomized by the data randomizer 522 or the data bypassing the datarandomizer 522. Then, the RS encoder/non-systematic RS encoder 523 addsa 20-byte RS parity to the coded data, thereby outputting theRS-parity-added data to the data interleaver 524. At this point, if theinputted data correspond to the main data packet, the RSencoder/non-systematic RS encoder 523 performs a systematic RS-codingprocess identical to that of the conventional receiving system on theinputted data, thereby adding the 20-byte RS parity at the end of the187-byte data. Alternatively, if the inputted data correspond to theenhanced data packet, the 20 bytes of RS parity gained by performing thenon-systematic RS-coding are respectively inserted in the decided paritybyte places within the enhanced data packet. Herein, the datainterleaver 524 corresponds to a byte unit convolutional interleaver.The output of the data interleaver 524 is inputted to the parity bytereplacer 525 and the non-systematic RS encoder 526.

Meanwhile, a memory within the trellis encoding module 527, which ispositioned after the parity byte replacer 525, should first beinitialized in order to allow the output data of the trellis encodingmodule 527 so as to become the known data defined based upon anagreement between the receiving system and the transmitting system. Morespecifically, the memory of the trellis encoding module 527 should firstbe initialized before the known data sequence being inputted istrellis-encoded. At this point, the beginning of the known data sequencethat is inputted corresponds to the initialization data place holderinserted by the group formatter 514 and not the actual known data.Therefore, a process of generating initialization data right before thetrellis-encoding of the known data sequence being inputted and a processof replacing the initialization data place holder of the correspondingtrellis encoding module memory with the newly generated initializationdata are required.

A value of the trellis memory initialization data is decided based uponthe memory status of the trellis encoding module 527, thereby generatingthe trellis memory initialization data accordingly. Due to the influenceof the replace initialization data, a process of recalculating the RSparity, thereby replacing the RS parity outputted from the trellisencoding module 527 with the newly calculated RS parity is required.Accordingly, the non-systematic RS encoder 526 receives the enhanceddata packet including the initialization data place holder that is to bereplaced with the initialization data from the data interleaver 524 andalso receives the initialization data from the trellis encoding module527. Thereafter, among the received enhanced data packet, theinitialization data place holder is replaced with the initializationdata. Subsequently, the RS parity data added to the enhanced data packetare removed. Then, a new non-systematic RS parity is calculated andoutputted to the parity byte replacer 525. Accordingly, the parity bytereplacer 525 selects the output of the data interleaver 524 as the datawithin the enhanced data packet, and selects the output of thenon-systematic RS encoder 526 as the RS parity. Thereafter, the paritybyte replacer 525 outputs the selected data.

Meanwhile, if the main data packet is inputted, or if the enhanced datapacket that does not include the initialization data place holder thatis to be replaced, the parity byte replacer 525 selects the data and RSparity outputted from the data interleaver 524 and directly outputs theselected data to the trellis encoding module 527 without modification.The trellis encoding module 527 converts the byte-unit data tosymbol-unit data and 12-way interleaves and trellis-encodes theconverted data, which are then outputted to the frame multiplexer 528.The frame multiplexer 528 inserts field synchronization and segmentsynchronization signals in the output of the trellis encoding module 527and then outputs the processed data to the transmitting unit 530.Herein, the transmitting unit 530 includes a pilot inserter 531, amodulator 532, and a radio frequency (RF) up-converter 533. Theoperation of the transmitting unit 530 is identical to the conventionaltransmitters. Therefore, a detailed description of the same will beomitted for simplicity.

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of a demodulating unit included inthe receiving system according to another embodiment of the presentinvention. Herein, the demodulating unit may effectively process signalstransmitted from the transmitting system shown in FIG. 6. Referring toFIG. 7, the demodulating unit includes a demodulator 601, a channelequalizer 602, a known sequence detector 603, a block decoder 604, anenhanced data deformatter 605, a RS frame decoder 606, an enhanced dataderandomizer 607, a data deinterleaver 608, a RS decoder 609, and a maimdata derandomizer 610. More specifically, the enhanced data includingknown data and the main data are received through the tuner and inputtedto the demodulator 601 and the known sequence detector 603. Thedemodulator 601 performs automatic gain control, carrier wave recovery,and timing recovery on the data that are being inputted, therebycreating baseband data, which are then outputted to the equalizer 602and the known sequence detector 603. The equalizer 602 compensates thedistortion within the channel included in the demodulated data. Then,the equalizer 602 outputs the compensated data to the block decoder 604.

At this point, the known sequence detector 603 detects the known dataplace inserted by the transmitting system to the input/output data ofthe demodulator 601 (i.e., data prior to demodulation or data afterdemodulation). Then, along with the position information, the knownsequence detector 603 outputs the symbol sequence of the known datagenerated from the corresponding position to the demodulator 601 and theequalizer 602. Additionally, the known sequence detector 603 outputsinformation enabling the block decoder 604 to identify the enhanced databeing additionally encoded by the transmitting system and the main datathat are not additionally encoded to the block decoder 604. Furthermore,although the connection is not shown in FIG. 7, the information detectedby the known sequence detector 603 may be used in the overall receivingsystem and may also be used in the enhanced data formatter 605 and theRS frame decoder 605.

By using the known data symbol sequence when performing the timingrecovery or carrier wave recovery, the demodulating performance of thedemodulator 601 may be enhanced. Similarly, by using the known data, thechannel equalizing performance of the channel equalizer 602 may beenhanced. Furthermore, by feeding-back the demodulation result of theblock demodulator 604, the channel equalizing performance may also beenhanced. Herein, the channel equalizer 602 may perform channelequalization through various methods. In the present invention, a methodof estimating a channel impulse response (CIR) far performing thechannel equalization process will be given as an example of the presentinvention. More specifically, in the present invention, the channelimpulse response (CIR) is differently estimated and applied inaccordance with each hierarchical area within the data group that aretransmitted from the transmitting system. Furthermore, by using theknown data having the position (or place) and contents pre-knownaccording to an agreement between the transmitting system and thereceiving system, so as to estimate the CIR, the channel equalizationprocess may be processed with more stability.

In the present invention, one data group that is inputted for channelequalization is divided into three hierarchical areas: a head area, abody area, and a tail area. Then, each of the areas is divided intolower hierarchical areas. More specifically, the head area may bedivided into a far head (FH) area, a middle head (MH) area, and a nearhead (NH) area. And, the tail area may be divided into a far tail (FT)area and a near tail (NT) area. Furthermore, based upon a long knowndata sequence, the body area may be divided into 4 lower hierarchicalareas: a first lower body (B1) area, a second lower body (B2) area, athird lower body (B3) area, and a fourth lower body (B4) area. Inperforming channel equalization on the data within the data group byusing the CIR estimated from the field synchronization signal and theknown data sequence, and in accordance with the characteristic of eacharea, either one of the estimated CIRs may be directly used withoutmodification, or a CIR created by interpolating or extrapolating aplurality of CIRs may be used.

Meanwhile, if the data being channel equalized and then inputted to theblock decoder G04 correspond to the enhanced data on which additionalencoding and trellis encoding are both performed by the transmittingsystem, trellis-decoding and additional decoding processes are performedas inverse processes of the transmitting system. Alternatively, if thedata being channel equalized and then inputted to the block decoder 604correspond to the main data on which additional encoding is notperformed and only trellis-encoding is performed by the transmittingsystem, only the trellis-decoding process is performed. The data groupdecoded by the block decoder 604 is inputted to the enhanced datadeformatter 605, and the main data packet is inputted to the datadeinterleaver 508.

More specifically, if the inputted data correspond to the main data, theblock decoder 504 performs Viterbi decoding on the inputted data, so asto either output a hard decision value or hard-decide a soft decisionvalue and output the hard-decided result. On the other hand, if theinputted correspond to the enhanced data, the block decoder 604 outputseither a hard decision value or a soft decision value on the inputtedenhanced data. In other words, if the data inputted to the block decoder604 correspond to the enhanced data, the block decoder 604 performs adecoding process on the data encoded by the block processor and thetrellis encoder of the transmitting system. At this point, the output ofthe RS frame encoder included in the pre-processor of the transmittingsystem becomes an external code, and the output of the block processorand the trellis encoder becomes an internal code. In order to showmaximum performance of the external code when decoding such connectioncodes, the decoder of the internal code should output a soft decisionvalue. Therefore, the block decoder 604 may output a hard decision valueon the enhanced data. However, when required, it is more preferable thatthe block decoder 604 outputs a soft decision value.

The present invention may also be used for configuring a reliability mapusing the soft decision value. The reliability map determines andindicates whether a byte corresponding to a group of B bits decided bythe code of the soft decision value is reliable. For example, when anabsolute value of the soft decision value exceeds a predeterminedthreshold value, the value of the bit corresponding to the soft decisionvalue code is determined to be reliable. However, if the absolute valuedoes not exceed the predetermined threshold value, then the value of thecorresponding bit is determined to be not reliable. Further, if at leastone bit among the group of 8 bits, which are determined based upon thesoft decision value, is determined to be not reliable, then thereliability map indicates that the entire byte is not reliable. Herein,the process of determining the reliability by 1-bit units is merelyexemplary. The corresponding byte may also be indicated to be notreliable if a plurality of bits (e.g., 4 bits) is determined to be notreliable.

Conversely, when all of the bits are determined to be reliable withinone byte (i.e., when the absolute value of the soft value of all bitsexceeds the pre-determined threshold value), then the reliability mapdetermines and indicates that the corresponding data byte is reliable.Similarly, when more than 4 bits are determined to be reliable withinone data byte, then the reliability map determines and indicates thatthe corresponding data byte is reliable. The estimated numbers aremerely exemplary and do not limit the scope and spirit of the presentinvention. Herein, the reliability map may be used when performing errorcorrection decoding processes.

Meanwhile, the data deinterleaver 608, the RS decoder 609, and the maindata derandomizer 610 are blocks required for receiving the main data.These blocks may not be required in a receiving system structure thatreceives only the enhanced data. The data deinterleaver 608 performs aninverse process of the data interleaver of the transmitting system. Morespecifically, the data deinterleaver 608 deinterleaves the main databeing outputted from the block decode 604 and outputs the deinterleaveddata to the RS decoder 609. The RS decoder 609 performs systematic RSdecoding on the deinterleaved data and outputs the systematicallydecoded data to the main data derandomizer 610. The main dataderandomizer 610 receives the data outputted from the RS decoder 609 soas to generate the same pseudo random byte as that of the randomizer inthe transmitting system. The main data derandomizer 610 then performs abitwise exclusive OR (XOR) operation on the generated pseudo random databyte, thereby inserting the MPEG synchronization bytes to the beginningof each packet so as to output the data in 188-byte main data packetunits.

Herein, the format of the data being outputted to the enhanced datadeformatter 605 from the block decoder 604 is a data group format. Atthis point, the enhanced data deformatter 605 already knows thestructure of the input data. Therefore, the enhanced data deformatter605 identifies the system information including signaling informationand the enhanced data from the data group. Thereafter, the identifiedsignaling information is transmitted to where the system information isrequired, and the enhanced data are outputted to the RS frame decoder606. The enhanced data deformatter 605 removes the known data, trellisinitialization data, and MPEG header that were included in the main dataand the data group and also removes the RS parity that was added by theRS encoder/non-systematic RS encoder of the transmitting system.Thereafter, the processed data are outputted to the RS frame decoder606.

More specifically, the RS frame decoder 606 receives the RS-coded andCRC-coded enhanced data from the enhanced data deformatter 605 so as toconfigure the RS frame. The RS frame decoder 606 performs an inverseprocess of the RS frame encoder included in the transmitting system,thereby correcting the errors within the RS frame. Then, the 1-byte MPEGsynchronization byte, which was removed during the RS frame codingprocess, is added to the error corrected enhanced data packet.Subsequently, the processed data are outputted to the enhanced dataderandomizer 607. Herein, the enhanced data derandomizer 607 performs aderandomizing process, which corresponds to an inverse process of theenhanced data randomizer included in the transmitting system, on thereceived enhanced data. Then, by outputting the processed data, theenhanced data transmitted from the transmitting system can be obtained.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the RS framedecoder 606 may also be configured as follows. The RS frame decoder 606may perform a CRC syndrome check on the RS frame, thereby verifyingwhether or not an error has occurred in each row. Subsequently, the CRCchecksum is removed and the presence of an error is indicated on a CRCerror flag corresponding to each row. Then, a RS decoding process isperformed on the RS frame having the CRC checksum removed in a columndirection. At this point, depending upon the number of CRC error flags,a RS erasure decoding process may be performed. More specifically, bychecking the CRC error flags corresponding to each row within the RSframe, the number of CRC error flags may be determined whether it isgreater or smaller than the maximum number of errors, when RS decodingthe number of rows with errors (or erroneous rows) in the columndirection. Herein, the maximum number of errors corresponds to thenumber of parity bytes inserted during the RS decoding process. As anexample of the present invention, it is assumed that 48 parity bytes areadded to each column.

If the number of rows with CRC errors is equal to or smaller than themaximum number of errors (e.g., 48), which may be corrected by the RSerasure decoding process, the RS erasure decoding process is performedon the RS frame in the column direction. Thereafter, the 48 bytes ofparity data that were added at the end of each column are removed.However, if the number of rows with CRC errors is greater than themaximum number of errors (e.g., 48), which may be corrected by the RSerasure decoding process, the RS erasure decoding process cannot beperformed. In this case, the error may be corrected by performing ageneral RS decoding process.

As another embodiment of the present invention, the error correctionability may be enhanced by using the reliability map created whenconfiguring the RS frame from the soft decision value. Morespecifically, the RS frame decoder 606 compares the absolute value ofthe soft decision value obtained from the block decoder 604 to thepre-determined threshold value so as to determine the reliability of thebit values that are decided by the code of the corresponding softdecision value. Then, B bits are grouped to configure a byte. Then, thereliability information of the corresponding byte is indicated on thereliability map. Therefore, even if a specific row is determined to haveCRC errors as a result of the CRC syndrome checking process of thecorresponding row, it is not assumed that all of the data bytes includedin the corresponding row have error. Instead, only the data bytes thatare determined to be not reliable, after referring to the reliabilityinformation on the reliability map, are set to have errors. In otherwords, regardless of the presence of CRC errors in the correspondingrow, only the data bytes that are determined to be not reliable (orunreliable) by the reliability map are set as erasure points.

Thereafter, if the number of erasure points for each column is equal toor smaller than the maximum number of errors (e.g., 48), the RS erasuredecoding process is performed on the corresponding the column.Conversely, if the number of erasure points is greater than the maximumnumber of errors (e.g., 48), which may be corrected by the RS erasuredecoding process, a general decoding process is performed on thecorresponding column. In other words, if the number of rows having CRCerrors is greater than the maximum number of errors (e.g., 48), whichmay be corrected by the RS erasure decoding process, either a RS erasuredecoding process or a general RS decoding process is performed on aparticular column in accordance with the number of erasure point withinthe corresponding column, wherein the number is decided based upon thereliability information on the reliability map. When the above-describedprocess is performed, the error correction decoding process is performedin the direction of all of the columns included in the RS frame.Thereafter, the 48 bytes of parity data added to the end of each columnare removed.

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram showing the structure of a digitalbroadcast receiving system according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. Referring to FIG. 8, the digital broadcast receiving systemincludes a tuner 701, a demodulating unit 702, a demultiplexer 703, anaudio decoder 704, a video decoder 705, a native TV application manager708, a channel manager 707, a channel map 708, a first memory 709, adata decoder 710, a second memory 711, a system manager 712, a databroadcasting application manager 713, a storage controller 714, and athird memory 715. Herein, the third memory 715 is a mass storage device,such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a memory chip. The tuner 701 tunes afrequency of a specific channel through any one of an antenna, cable,and satellite. Then, the tuner 701 down-converts the tuned frequency toan intermediate frequency (IF), which is then outputted to thedemodulating unit 702. At this point, the tuner 701 is controlled by thechannel manager 707. Additionally, the result and strength of thebroadcast signal of the tuned channel are also reported to the channelmanager 707. The data that are being received by the frequency of thetuned specific channel include main data, enhanced data, and table datafor decoding the main data and enhanced data.

In the embodiment of the present invention, examples of the enhanceddata may include data provided for data service, such as Javaapplication data, HTML application data, XML data, and so on. The dataprovided for such data services may correspond either to a Java classfile for the Java application, or to a directory file designatingpositions (or locations) of such files. Furthermore, such data may alsocorrespond to an audio file and/or a video file used in eachapplication. The data services may include weather forecast services,traffic information services, stock information services, servicesproviding information quiz programs providing audience participationservices, real time poll, user interactive education programs, gamingservices, services providing information on soap opera (or TV series)synopsis, characters, original sound track, filing sites, servicesproviding information on past sports matches, profiles andaccomplishments of sports players, product information and productordering services, services providing information on broadcast programsby media type, airing time, subject, and so on. The types of dataservices described above are only exemplary and are not limited only tothe examples given herein. Furthermore, depending upon the embodiment ofthe present invention, the enhanced data may correspond to meta data.For example, the meta data use the XML application so as to betransmitted through a DSM-CC protocol.

The demodulating unit 702 performs VSB-demodulation and channelequalization on the signal being outputted from the tuner 701, therebyidentifying the main data and the enhanced data. Thereafter, theidentified main data and enhanced data are outputted in TS packet units.Examples of the demodulating unit 702 are shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 7.The demodulating unit shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 7 is merely exemplary andthe scope of the present invention is not limited to the examples setforth herein. In the embodiment given as an example of the presentinvention, only the enhanced data packet outputted from the demodulatingunit 702 is inputted to the demultiplexer 703. In this case, the maindata packet is inputted to another demultiplexer (not shown) thatprocesses main data packets. Herein, the storage controller 714 is alsoconnected to the other demultiplexer in order to store the main dataafter processing the main data packets. The demultiplexer of the presentinvention may also be designed to process both enhanced data packets andmain data packets in a single demultiplexer.

The storage controller 714 is interfaced with the demultipelxer so as tocontrol instant recording, reserved (or pre-programmed) recording, timeshift, and so on of the enhanced data and/or main data. For example,when one of instant recording, reserved (or pre-programmed) recording,and time shift is set and programmed in the receiving system (orreceiver) shown in FIG. 8, the corresponding enhanced data and/or maindata that are inputted to the demultiplexer are stored in the thirdmemory 715 in accordance with the control of the storage controller 714.The third memory 715 may be described as a temporary storage area and/ora permanent storage area. Herein, the temporary storage area is used forthe time shifting function, and the permanent storage area is used for apermanent storage of data according to the user's choice (or decision).

When the data stored in the third memory 715 need to be reproduced (orplayed), the storage controller 714 reads the corresponding data storedin the third memory 715 and outputs the read data to the correspondingdemultiplexer (e.g., the enhanced data are outputted to thedemultiplexer 703 shown in FIG. 8). At this point, according to theembodiment of the present invention, since the storage capacity of thethird memory 715 is limited, the compression encoded enhanced dataand/or main data that are being inputted are directly stored in thethird memory 715 without any modification for the efficiency of thestorage capacity. In this case, depending upon the reproduction (orreading) command, the data read from the third memory 715 pass troughthe demultiplexer so as to be inputted to the corresponding decoder,thereby being restored to the initial state.

The storage controller 714 may control the reproduction (or play),fast-forward, rewind, slow motion, instant replay functions of the datathat are already stored in the third memory 715 or presently beingbuffered. Herein, the instant replay function corresponds to repeatedlyviewing scenes that the viewer (or user) wishes to view once again. Theinstant replay function may be performed on stored data and also on datathat are currently being received in real time by associating theinstant replay function with the time shift function. If the data beinginputted correspond to the analog format, for example, if thetransmission mode is NTSC, PAL, and so on, the storage controller 714compression encodes the inputted data and stored the compression-encodeddata to the third memory 715. In order to do so, the storage controller714 may include an encoder, wherein the encoder may be embodied as oneof software, middleware, and hardware. Herein, an MPEG encoder may beused as the encoder according to an embodiment of the present invention.The encoder may also be provided outside of the storage controller 714.

Meanwhile, in order to prevent illegal duplication (or copies) of theinput data being stored in the third memory 715, the storage controller714 scrambles the input data and stores the scrambled data in the thirdmemory 715. Accordingly, the storage controller 714 may include ascramble algorithm for scrambling the data stored in the third memory715 and a descramble algorithm for descrambling the data read from thethird memory 715. Herein, the definition of scramble includesencryption, and the definition of descramble includes decryption. Thescramble method may include using an arbitrary key (e.g., control word)to modify a desired set of data, and also a method of mixing signals.

Meanwhile, the demultiplexer 703 receives the real-time data outputtedfrom the demodulating unit 702 or the data read from the third memory715 and demultiplexes the received data. In the example given in thepresent invention, the demultiplexer 703 performs demultiplexing on theenhanced data packet. Therefore, in the present invention, the receivingand processing of the enhanced data will be described in detail. Itshould also be noted that a detailed description of the processing ofthe main data will be omitted for simplicity starting from thedescription of the demultiplexer 703 and the subsequent elements.

The demultiplexer 703 demultiplexes enhanced data and program specificinformation/program and system information protocol (PSI/PSIP) tablesfrom the enhanced data packet inputted in accordance with the control ofthe data decoder 710. Thereafter, the demultiplexed enhanced data andPSI/PSIP tables are outputted to the data decoder 710 in a sectionformat. In order to extract the enhanced data from the channel throughwhich enhanced data are transmitted and to decode the extracted enhanceddata, system information is required. Such system information may alsobe referred to as service information. The system information mayinclude channel information, event information, etc. In the embodimentof the present invention, the PSI/PSIP tables are applied as the systeminformation. However, the present invention is not limited to theexample set forth herein. More specifically, regardless of the name, anyprotocol transmitting system information in a table format may beapplied in the present invention.

The PSI table is an MPEG-2 system standard defined for identifying thechannels and the programs. The PSIP table is an advanced televisionsystems committee (ATSC) standard that can identify the channels and theprograms. The PSI table may include a program association table (PAT), aconditional access table (CAT), a program map table (PMT), and a networkinformation table (NIT). Herein, the PAT corresponds to specialinformation that is transmitted by a data packet having a PID of ‘0’.The PAT transmits PID information of the PMT and PID information of theNIT corresponding to each program. The CAT transmits information on apaid broadcast system used by the transmitting system. The PMT transmitsPID information of a transport stream (TS) packet, in which programidentification numbers and individual bit sequences of video and audiodata configuring the corresponding program are transmitted, and the PIDinformation, in which PCR is transmitted. The NIT transmits informationof the actual transmission network.

The PSIP table may include a virtual channel table (VCT), a system timetable (STT), a rating region table (RRT), an extended text table (ETT),a direct channel change table (DCCT), an event information table (EIT),and a master guide table (MGT). The VCT transmits information on virtualchannels, such as channel information for selecting channels andinformation such as packet identification (PID) numbers for receivingthe audio and/or video data. More specifically, when the VCT is parsed,the PID of the audio/video data of the broadcast program may be known.Herein, the corresponding audio/video data are transmitted within thechannel along with the channel name and the channel number. The STTtransmits information on the current data and timing information. TheRRT transmits information on region and consultation organs for programratings. The ETT transmits additional description of a specific channeland broadcast program. The ETT transmits information on virtual channelevents (e.g., program title, program start time, etc.). The DCCT/DCCSCTtransmits information associated with automatic (or direct) channelchange. And, the MGT transmits the versions and PID information of theabove-mentioned tables included in the PSIP.

Each of the above-described tables included in the PSI/PSIP isconfigured of a basic unit referred to as a “section” and a combinationof one or more sections forms a table. For example, the VCT may bedivided into 256 sections. Herein, one section may include a pluralityof virtual channel information. However, a single set of virtual channelinformation is not divided into two or more sections. At this point, thereceiving system may parse and decode the data for the data service thatare transmitting by using only the tables included in the PSI, or onlythe tables included in the PSIP, or a combination of tables included inboth the PSI and the PSIP. In order to parse and decode the data for thedata service, at least one of the PAT and PMT included in the PSI, andthe VCT included in the PSIP is required. For example, the PAT mayinclude the system information for transmitting the data correspondingto the data service, and the PID of the PMT corresponding to the dataservice data (or program number). The PMT may include the PID of the TSpacket used for transmitting the data service data The VCT may includeinformation on the virtual channel for transmitting the data servicedata, and the PID of the TS packet for transmitting the data servicedata.

Meanwhile, depending upon the embodiment of the present invention, aDVB-SI may be applied instead of the PSIP. The DVB-SI may include anetwork information table (NIT), a service description table (SDT), anevent information table (EIT), and a time and data table (TDT). TheDVB-SI may be used in combination with the above-described PSI. Herein,the NIT divides the services corresponding to particular networkproviders by specific groups. The NIT includes all tuning informationthat are used during the IRD set-up. The NIT may be used for informingor notifying any change in the tuning information. The SDT includes theservice name and different parameters associated with each servicecorresponding to a particular MPEG multiplex. The EIT is used fortransmitting information associated with all events occurring in theMPEG multiplex. The EIT includes information on the current transmissionand also includes information selectively containing differenttransmission streams that may be received by the IRD. And, the TDT isused for updating the clock included in the IRD.

Furthermore, three selective SI tables (i.e., a bouquet associate table(BAT), a running status table (RST), and a stuffing table (ST)) may alsobe included. More specifically, the bouquet associate table (BAT)provides a service grouping method enabling the IRD to provide servicesto the viewers. Each specific service may belong to at least one‘bouquet’ unit. A running status table (RST) section is used forpromptly and instantly updating at least one event execution status. Theexecution status section is transmitted only once at the changing pointof the event status. Other SI tables are generally transmitted severaltimes. The stuffing table (ST) may be used for replacing or discarding asubsidiary table or the entire SI tables.

In the present invention, the enhanced data included in the payloadwithin the TS packet consist of a digital storage media-command andcontrol (DSM-CC) section format. However, the TS packet including thedata service data may correspond either to a packetized elementarystream (PES) type or to a section type. More specifically, either thePES type data service data configure the TS packet, or the section typedata service data configure the TS packet. The TS packet configured ofthe section type data will be given as the example of the presentinvention. At this point, the data service data are includes in thedigital storage media-command and control (DSM-CC) section. Herein, theDSM-CC section is then configured of a 188-byte unit TS packet.

Furthermore, the packet identification of the TS packet configuring theDSM-CC section is included in a data service table (DST). Whentransmitting the DST, ‘0x95’? is assigned as the value of a stream_typefield included in the service location descriptor of the PMT or the VCT.More specifically, when the PMT or VCT stream_type field value is‘0x95’, the receiving system may acknowledge that data broadcastingincluding enhanced data (i.e., the enhanced data) is being received. Atthis point, the enhanced data may be transmitted by a data carouselmethod. The data carousel method corresponds to repeatedly transmittingidentical data on a regular basis.

At this point, according to the control of the data decoder 710, thedemultiplexer 703 performs section filtering, thereby discardingrepetitive sections and outputting only the non-repetitive sections tothe data decoder 710. The demultiplexer 703 may also output only thesections configuring desired tables (e.g., VCT) to the data decoder 710by section filtering. Herein, the VCT may include a specific descriptorfor the enhanced data. However, the present invention does not excludethe possibilities of the enhanced data being included in other tables,such as the PMT. The section filtering method may include a method ofverifying the PID of a table defined by the MGT, such as the VCT, priorto performing the section filtering process. Alternatively, the sectionfiltering method may also include a method of directly performing thesection filtering process without verifying the MGT, when the VCTincludes a fixed PID (i.e., a base PID). At this point, thedemultiplexer 703 performs the section filtering process by referring toa table_id field, a version_number field, a section_number field, etc.

As described above, the method of defining the PID of the VCT broadlyincludes two different methods. Herein, the PID of the VCT is a packetidentifier required for identifying the VCT from other tables. The firstmethod consists of setting the PID of the VCT so that it is dependent tothe MGT. In this case, the receiving system cannot directly verify theVCT among the many PSI and/or PSIP tables. Instead, the receiving systemmust check the PID defined in the MGT in order to read the VCT. Herein,the MGT defines the PID, size, version number, and so on, of diversetables. The second method consists of setting the PID of the VCT so thatthe PID is given a base PID value (or a fixed PID value), thereby beingindependent from the MGT. In this case, unlike in the first method, theVCT according to the present invention may be identified without havingto verify every single PID included in the MGT. Evidently, an agreementon the base PID must be previously made between the transmitting systemand the receiving system.

Meanwhile, in the embodiment of the present invention, the demultiplexer703 may output only an application information table (AIT) to the datadecoder 710 by section filtering. The AIT includes information on anapplication being operated in the receiving system for the data service.The AIT may also be referred to as an XAIT, and an AMT. Therefore, anytable including application information may correspond to the followingdescription. When the AIT is transmitted, a value of ‘0x05’? may beassigned to a stream_type field of the PMT. The AIT may includeapplication information, such as application name, application version,application priority, application ID, application status (i.e.,auto-start, user-specific settings, kill, etc.), application type (i.e.,Java or HTML), position (or location) of stream including applicationclass and data files, application platform directory, and location ofapplication icon.

In the method for detecting application information for the data serviceby using the AIT, component_tag, original_network_id,transport_stream_id, and service_id fields may be used for detecting theapplication information. The component_tag field designates anelementary stream carrying a DSI of a corresponding object carousel. Theoriginal_network_id field indicates a DVB-SI original_network_id of theTS providing transport connection. The transport_stream_id fieldindicates the MPEG TS of the TS providing transport connection, and theservice_id field indicates the DVB-SI of the service providing transportconnection. Information on a specific channel may be obtained by usingthe original_network_id field, the transport_stream_id field, and theservice_id field. The data service data, such as the application data,detected by using the above-described method may be stored in the secondmemory 711 by the data decoder 710.

The data decoder 710 parses the DSM-CC section configuring thedemultiplexed enhanced data. Then, the enhanced data corresponding tothe parsed result are stored as a database in the second memory 711. Thedata decoder 710 groups a plurality of sections having the same tableidentification (table_id) so as to configure a table, which is thenparsed. Thereafter, the parsed result is stored as a database in thesecond memory 711. At this point, by parsing data and/or sections, thedata decoder 710 reads all of the remaining actual section data that arenot section-filtered by the demultiplexer 703. Then, the data decoder710 stores the read data to the second memory 711. The second memory 711corresponds to a table and data carousel database storing systeminformation parsed from tables and enhanced data parsed from the DSM-CCsection. Herein, a table_id field, a section_number field, and alast_section_number field included in the table may be used to indicatewhether the corresponding table is configured of a single section or aplurality of sections. For example, TS packets having the PID of the VCTare grouped to form a section, and sections having table identifiersallocated to the VCT are grouped to form the VCT.

When the VCT is parsed, information on the virtual channel to whichenhanced data are transmitted may be obtained. The obtained applicationidentification information, service component identificationinformation, and service information corresponding to the data servicemay either be stored in the second memory 711 or be outputted to thedata broadcasting application manager 713. In addition, reference may bemade to the application identification information, service componentidentification information, and service information in order to decodethe data service data. Alternatively, such information may also preparethe operation of the application program for the data service.Furthermore, the data decoder 710 controls the demultiplexing of thesystem information table, which corresponds to the information tableassociated with the channel and events. Thereafter, an A.V PID list maybe transmitted to the channel manager 707.

The channel manager 707 may refer to the channel map 708 in order totransmit a request for receiving system-related information data to thedata decoder 710, thereby receiving the corresponding result. Inaddition, the channel manager 707 may also control the channel tuning ofthe tuner 701. Furthermore, the channel manager 707 may directly controlthe demultiplexer 703, so as to set up the A/V PID, thereby controllingthe audio decoder 704 and the video decoder 705. The audio decoder 704and the video decoder 705 may respectively decode and output the audiodata and video data demultiplexed from the main data packet.Alternatively, the audio decoder 704 and the video decoder 705 mayrespectively decode and output the audio data and video datademultiplexed from the enhanced data packet. Meanwhile, when theenhanced data include data service data, and also audio data and videodata, it is apparent that the audio data and video data demultiplexed bythe demultiplexer 703 are respectively decoded by the audio decoder 704and the video decoder 705. For example, an audio-coding (AC)-3 decodingalgorithm may be applied to the audio decoder 704, and a MPEG-2 decodingalgorithm may be applied to the video decoder 705.

Meanwhile, the native TV application manager 706 operates a nativeapplication program stored in the first memory 709, thereby performinggeneral functions such as channel change. The native application programrefers to software stored in the receiving system upon shipping of theproduct. More specifically, when a user request (or command) istransmitted to the receiving system through a user interface (UI), thenative TV application manger 706 displays the user request on a screenthrough a graphic user interface (GUI), thereby responding to the user'srequest. The user interface receives the user request through an inputdevice, such as a remote controller, a key pad, a jog controller, an atouch-screen provided on the screen, and then outputs the received userrequest to the native TV application manager 706 and the databroadcasting application manager 713. Furthermore, the native TVapplication manager 706 controls the channel manager 707, therebycontrolling channel-associated, such as the management of the channelmap 708, and controlling the data decoder 710. The native TV applicationmanager 706 also controls the GUI of the overall receiving system,thereby storing the user request and status of the receiving system inthe first memory 709 and restoring the stored information.

The channel manager 707 controls the tuner 701 and the data decoder 710,so as to managing the channel map 708 so that it can respond to thechannel request made by the user. More specifically, channel manager 707sends a request to the data decoder 710 so that the tables associatedwith the channels that are to be tuned are parsed. The results of theparsed tables are reported to the channel manager 707 by the datadecoder 710. Thereafter, based on the parsed results, the channelmanager 707 updates the channel map 708 and sets up a PID in thedemultiplexer 703 for demultiplexing the tables associated with the dataservice data from the enhanced data.

The system manager 712 controls the booting of the receiving system byturning the power on or off. Then, the system manager 712 stores ROMimages (including downloaded software images) in the first memory 709.More specifically, the first memory 709 stores management programs suchas operating system (OS) programs required for managing the receivingsystem and also application program executing data service functions.The application program is a program processing the data service datastored in the second memory 711 so as to provide the user with the dataservice. If the data service data are stored in the second memory 711,the corresponding data service data are processed by the above-describedapplication program or by other application programs, thereby beingprovided to the user. The management program and application programstored in the first memory 709 may be updated or corrected to a newlydownloaded program. Furthermore, the storage of the stored managementprogram and application program is maintained without being deleted evenif the power of the system is shut down. Therefore, when the power issupplied the programs may be executed without having to be newlydownloaded once again.

The application program for providing data service according to thepresent invention may either be initially stored in the first memory 709upon the shipping of the receiving system, or be stored in the first 709after being downloaded. The application program for the data service(i.e., the data service providing application program) stored in thefirst memory 709 may also be deleted, updated, and corrected.Furthermore, the data service providing application program may bedownloaded and executed along with the data service data each time thedata service data are being received.

When a data service request is transmitted through the user interface,the data broadcasting application manager 713 operates the correspondingapplication program stored in the first memory 709 so as to process therequested data, thereby providing the user with the requested dataservice. And, in order to provide such data service, the databroadcasting application manager 713 supports the graphic user interface(GUI). Herein, the data service may be provided in the form of text (orshort message service (SMS)), voice message, still image, and movingimage. The data broadcasting application manager 713 may be providedwith a platform for executing the application program stored in thefirst memory 709. The platform may be, for example, a Java virtualmachine for executing the Java program. Hereinafter, an example of thedata broadcasting application manager 713 executing the data serviceproviding application program stored in the first memory 709, so as toprocess the data service data stored in the second memory 711, therebyproviding the user with the corresponding data service will now bedescribed in detail.

Assuming that the data service corresponds to a traffic informationservice, the data service according to the present invention is providedto the user of a receiving system that is not equipped with anelectronic map and/or a GPS system in the form of at least one of a text(or short message service (SMS)), a voice message, a graphic message, astill image, and a moving image. In this case, is a GPS module ismounted on the receiving system shown in FIG. 8, the GPS module receivessatellite signals transmitted from a plurality of low earth orbitsatellites and extracts the current position (or location) information(e.g., longitude, latitude, altitude), thereby outputting the extractedinformation to the data broadcasting application manager 713.

At this point, it is assumed that the electronic map includinginformation on each link and nod and other diverse graphic informationare stored in one of the second memory 711, the first memory 709, andanother memory that is not shown. More specifically, according to therequest made by the data broadcasting application manager 713, the dataservice data stored in the second memory 711 are read and inputted tothe data broadcasting application manager 713. The data broadcastingapplication manager 713 translates (or deciphers) the data service dataread from the second memory 711, thereby extracting the necessaryinformation according to the contents of the message and/or a controlsignal.

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram showing the structure of a digitalbroadcast (or television) receiving system according to anotherembodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 9, the digitalbroadcast receiving system includes a tuner 801, a demodulating unit802, a demultiplexer 803, a first descrambler 804, an audio decoder 805,a video decoder 806, a second descrambler 807, an authentication unitBOB, a native TV application manager 809, a channel manager 810, achannel map 811, a first memory 812, a data decoder 813, a second memory814, a system manager 815, a data broadcasting application manager 816,a storage controller 817, a third memory 818, and a telecommunicationmodule 819. Herein, the third memory 818 is a mass storage device, suchas a hard disk drive (HDD) or a memory chip. Also, during thedescription of the digital broadcast (or television or DTV) receivingsystem shown in FIG. 9, the components that are identical to those ofthe digital broadcast receiving system of FIG. 8 will be omitted forsimplicity.

As described above, in order to provide services for preventing illegalduplication (or copies) or illegal viewing of the enhanced data and/ormain data that are transmitted by using a broadcast network, and toprovide paid broadcast services, the transmitting system may generallyscramble and transmit the broadcast contents. Therefore, the receivingsystem needs to descramble the scrambled broadcast contents in order toprovide the user with the proper broadcast contents. Furthermore, thereceiving system may generally be processed with an authenticationprocess with an authentication means before the descrambling process.Hereinafter, the receiving system including an authentication means anda descrambling means according to an embodiment of the present inventionwill now be described in detail.

According to the present invention, the receiving system may be providedwith a descrambling means receiving scrambled broadcasting contents andan authentication means authenticating (or verifying) whether thereceiving system is entitled to receive the descrambled contents.Hereinafter, the descrambling means will be referred to as first andsecond descramblers 804 and 807, and the authentication means will bereferred to as an authentication unit 808. Such naming of thecorresponding components is merely exemplary and is not limited to theterms suggested in the description of the present invention. Forexample, the units may also be referred to as a decryptor. Although FIG.9 illustrates an example of the descramblers 804 and 807 and theauthentication unit 808 being provided inside the receiving system, eachof the descramblers 804 and 807 and the authentication unit BOB may alsobe separately provided in an internal or external module. Herein, themodule may include a slot type, such as a SD or CF memory, a memorystick type, a USB type, and so on, and may be detachably fixed to thereceiving system.

As described above, when the authentication process is performedsuccessfully by the authentication unit 80B, the scrambled broadcastingcontents are descrambled by the descramblers 804 and 807, thereby beingprovided to the user. At this point, a variety of the authenticationmethod and descrambling method may be used herein. However, an agreementon each corresponding method should be made between the receiving systemand the transmitting system. Hereinafter, the authentication anddescrambling methods will now be described, and the description ofidentical components or process steps will be omitted for simplicity.

The receiving system including the authentication unit BOB and thedescramblers 804 and 807 will now be described in detail. The receivingsystem receives the scrambled broadcasting contents through the tuner801 and the demodulating unit 802. Then, the system manager 815 decideswhether the received broadcasting contents have been scrambled. Herein,the demodulating unit 802 may be included as a demodulating meansaccording to embodiments of the present invention as described in FIG. 5and FIG. 7. However, the present invention is not limited to theexamples given in the description set forth herein. If the systemmanager 815 decides that the received broadcasting contents have beenscrambled, then the system manager 815 controls the system to operatethe authentication unit BOB. As described above, the authentication unit808 performs an authentication process in order to decide whether thereceiving system according to the present invention corresponds to alegitimate host entitled to receive the paid broadcasting service.Herein, the authentication process may vary in accordance with theauthentication methods.

For example, the authentication unit 808 may perform the authenticationprocess by comparing an IP address of an IP datagram within the receivedbroadcasting contents with a specific address of a corresponding host.At this point, the specific address of the corresponding receivingsystem (or host) may be a MAC address. More specifically, theauthentication unit 808 may extract the IP address from the decapsulatedIP datagram, thereby obtaining the receiving system information that ismapped with the IP address. At this point, the receiving system shouldbe provided, in advance, with information (e.g., a table format) thatcan map the IP address and the receiving system information.Accordingly, the authentication unit 808 performs the authenticationprocess by determining the conformity between the address of thecorresponding receiving system and the system information of thereceiving system that is mapped with the IP address. In other words, ifthe authentication unit 808 determines that the two types of informationconform to one another, then the authentication unit 808 determines thatthe receiving system is entitled to receive the correspondingbroadcasting contents.

In another example, standardized identification information is definedin advance by the receiving system and the transmitting system. Then,the identification information of the receiving system requesting thepaid broadcasting service is transmitted by the transmitting system.Thereafter, the receiving system determines whether the receivedidentification information conforms with its own unique identificationnumber, so as to perform the authentication process. More specifically,the transmitting system creates a database for storing theidentification information (or number) of the receiving systemrequesting the paid broadcasting service. Then, if the correspondingbroadcasting contents are scrambled, the transmitting system includesthe identification information in the EMM, which is then transmitted tothe receiving system.

If the corresponding broadcasting contents are scrambled, messages(e.g., entitlement control message (ECM), entitlement management message(EMM)), such as the CAS information, mode information, message positioninformation, that are applied to the scrambling of the broadcastingcontents are transmitted through a corresponding data header or antherdata packet. The ECM may include a control word (CW) used for scramblingthe broadcasting contents. At this point, the control word may beencoded with an authentication key. The EMM may include anauthentication key and entitlement information of the correspondingdata. Herein, the authentication key may be encoded with a receivingsystem-specific distribution key. In other words, assuming that theenhanced data are scrambled by using the control word, and that theauthentication information and the descrambling information aretransmitted from the transmitting system, the transmitting systemencodes the CW with the authentication key and, then, includes theencoded CW in the entitlement control message (ECM), which is thentransmitted to the receiving system. Furthermore, the transmittingsystem includes the authentication key used for encoding the CW and theentitlement to receive data (or services) of the receiving system (i.e.,a standardized serial number of the receiving system that is entitled toreceive the corresponding broadcasting service or data) in theentitlement management message (EMM), which is then transmitted to thereceiving system.

Accordingly, the authentication unit 808 of the receiving systemextracts the identification information of the receiving system and theidentification information included in the EMM of the broadcastingservice that is being received. Then, the authentication unit 808determines whether the identification information conform to each other,so as to perform the authentication process. More specifically, if theauthentication unit 808 determines that the information conform to eachother, then the authentication unit 808 eventually determines that thereceiving system is entitled to receive the request broadcastingservice.

In yet another example, the authentication unit BOB of the receivingsystem may be detachably fixed to an external module. In this case, thereceiving system is interfaced with the external module through a commoninterface (CI). In other words, the external module may receive the datascrambled by the receiving system through the common interface, therebyperforming the descrambling process of the received data. Alternatively,the external module may also transmit only the information required forthe descrambling process to the receiving system. The common interfaceis configured on a physical layer and at least one protocol layer.Herein, in consideration of any possible expansion of the protocol layerin a later process, the corresponding protocol layer may be configuredto have at least one layer that can each provide an independentfunction.

The external module may either consist of a memory or card havinginformation on the key used for the scrambling process and otherauthentication information but not including any descrambling function,or consist of a card having the above-mentioned key information andauthentication information and including the descrambling function. Boththe receiving system and the external module should be authenticated inorder to provide the user with the paid broadcasting service provided(or transmitted) from the transmitting system. Therefore, thetransmitting system can only provide the corresponding paid broadcastingservice to the authenticated pair of receiving system and externalmodule.

Additionally, an authentication process should also be performed betweenthe receiving system and the external module through the commoninterface. More specifically, the module may communicate with the systemmanager 815 included in the receiving system through the commoninterface, thereby authenticating the receiving system. Alternatively,the receiving system may authenticate the module through the commoninterface. Furthermore, during the authentication process, the modulemay extract the unique ID of the receiving system and its own unique IDand transmit the extracted IDs to the transmitting system. Thus, thetransmitting system may use the transmitted ID values as informationdetermining whether to start the requested service or as paymentinformation. Whenever necessary, the system manager 815 transmits thepayment information to the remote transmitting system through thetelecommunication module 819.

The authentication unit 808 authenticates the corresponding receivingsystem and/or the external module. Then, if the authentication processis successfully completed, the authentication unit 808 certifies thecorresponding receiving system and/or the external module as alegitimate system and/or module entitled to receive the requested paidbroadcasting service. In addition, the authentication unit 808 may alsoreceive authentication-associated information from a mobiletelecommunications service provider to which the user of the receivingsystem is subscribed, instead of the transmitting system providing therequested broadcasting service. In this case, theauthentication-association information may either be scrambled by thetransmitting system providing the broadcasting service and, then,transmitted to the user through the mobile telecommunications serviceprovider, or be directly scrambled and transmitted by the mobiletelecommunications service provider. Once the authentication process issuccessfully completed by the authentication unit 808, the receivingsystem may descramble the scrambled broadcasting contents received fromthe transmitting system. At this point, the descrambling process isperformed by the first and second descramblers 804 and 807. Herein, thefirst and second descramblers 804 and 807 may be included in an internalmodule or an external module of the receiving system.

The receiving system is also provided with a common interface forcommunicating with the external module including the first and seconddescramblers 804 and 807, so as to perform the descrambling process.More specifically, the first and second descramblers 804 and 807 may beincluded in the module or in the receiving system in the form ofhardware, middleware or software. Herein, the descramblers 804 and 807may be included in any one of or both of the module and the receivingsystem. If the first and second descramblers 804 and 807 are providedinside the receiving system, it is advantageous to have the transmittingsystem (i.e., at least any one of a service provider and a broadcaststation) scramble the corresponding data using the same scramblingmethod.

Alternatively, if the first and second descramblers 804 and 807 areprovided in the external module, it is advantageous to have eachtransmitting system scramble the corresponding data using differentscrambling methods. In this case, the receiving system is not requiredto be provided with the descrambling algorithm corresponding to eachtransmitting system. Therefore, the structure and size of receivingsystem may be simplified and more compact. Accordingly, in this case,the external module itself may be able to provide CA functions, whichare uniquely and only provided by each transmitting systems, andfunctions related to each service that is to be provided to the user.The common interface enables the various external modules and the systemmanager 815, which is included in the receiving system, to communicatewith one another by a single communication method. Furthermore, sincethe receiving system may be operated by being connected with at leastone or more modules providing different services, the receiving systemmay be connected to a plurality of modules and controllers.

In order to maintain successful communication between the receivingsystem and the external module, the common interface protocol includes afunction of periodically checking the status of the oppositecorrespondent. By using this function, the receiving system and theexternal module is capable of managing the status of each oppositecorrespondent. This function also reports the user or the transmittingsystem of any malfunction that may occur in any one of the receivingsystem and the external module and attempts the recovery of themalfunction.

In yet another example, the authentication process may be performedthrough software. More specifically, when a memory card having CASsoftware downloaded, for example, and stored therein in advanced isinserted in the receiving system, the receiving system receives andloads the CAS software from the memory card so as to perform theauthentication process. In this example, the CAS software is read outfrom the memory card and stored in the first memory 812 of the receivingsystem. Thereafter, the CAS software is operated in the receiving systemas an application program. According to an embodiment of the presentinvention, the CAS software is mounted on (or stored) in a middlewareplatform and, then executed. A Java middleware will be given as anexample of the middleware included in the present invention. Herein, theCAS software should at least include information required for theauthentication process and also information required for thedescrambling process.

Therefore, the authentication unit 808 performs authentication processesbetween the transmitting system and the receiving system and alsobetween the receiving system and the memory card. At this point, asdescribed above, the memory card should be entitled to receive thecorresponding data and should include information on a normal receivingsystem that can be authenticated. For example, information on thereceiving system may include a unique number, such as a standardizedserial number of the corresponding receiving system. Accordingly, theauthentication unit 808 compares the standardized serial number includedin the memory card with the unique information of the receiving system,thereby performing the authentication process between the receivingsystem and the memory card.

If the CAS software is first executed in the Java middleware base, thenthe authentication between the receiving system and the memory card isperformed. For example, when the unique number of the receiving systemstored in the memory card conforms to the unique number of the receivingsystem read from the system manager 815, then the memory card isverified and determined to be a normal memory card that may be used inthe receiving system. At this point, the CAS software may either beinstalled in the first memory 812 upon the shipping of the presentinvention, or be downloaded to the first memory 812 from thetransmitting system or the module or memory card, as described above.Herein, the descrambling function may be operated by the databroadcasting application manger 815 as an application program.

Thereafter, the CAS software parses the EMM/ECM packets outputted fromthe demultiplexer 803, so as to verify whether the receiving system isentitled to receive the corresponding data, thereby obtaining theinformation required for descrambling (i.e., the CW) and providing theobtained CW to the descramblers 804 and 807. More specifically, the CASsoftware operating in the Java middleware platform first reads out theunique (or serial) number of the receiving system from the correspondingreceiving system and compares it with the unique number of the receivingsystem transmitted through the EMM, thereby verifying whether thereceiving system is entitled to receive the corresponding data. Once thereceiving entitlement of the receiving system is verified, thecorresponding broadcasting service information transmitted to the ECMand the entitlement of receiving the corresponding broadcasting serviceare used to verify whether the receiving system is entitled to receivethe corresponding broadcasting service. Once the receiving system isverified to be entitled to receive the corresponding broadcastingservice, the authentication key transmitted to the EMM is used to decode(or decipher) the encoded CW, which is transmitted to the ECM, therebytransmitting the decoded CW to the descramblers 804 and 807. Each of thedescramblers 804 and 807 uses the CW to descramble the broadcastingservice.

Meanwhile, the CAS software stored in the memory card may be expanded inaccordance with the paid service which the broadcast station is toprovide. Additionally, the CAS software may also include otheradditional information other than the information, associated with theauthentication and descrambling. Furthermore, the receiving system maydownload the CAS software from the transmitting system so as to upgrade(or update) the CAS software originally stored in the memory card. Asdescribed above, regardless of the type of broadcast receiving system,as long as an external memory interface is provided, the presentinvention may embody a CAS system that can meet the requirements of alltypes of memory card that may be detachably fixed to the receivingsystem. Thus, the present invention may realize maximum performance ofthe receiving system with minimum fabrication cost, wherein thereceiving system may receive paid broadcasting contents such asbroadcast programs, thereby acknowledging and regarding the variety ofthe receiving system. Moreover, since only the minimum applicationprogram interface is required to be embodied in the embodiment of thepresent invention, the fabrication cost may be minimized, therebyeliminating the manufacturer's dependence on CAS manufacturers.Accordingly, fabrication costs of CAS equipments and management systemsmay also be minimized.

Meanwhile, the descramblers 804 and 807 may be included in the moduleeither in the form of hardware or in the form of software. In this case,the scrambled data that being received are descrambled by the module andthen demodulated. Also, if the scrambled data that are being receivedare stored in the third memory 818, the received data may be descrambledand then stored, or stored in the memory at the point of being receivedand then descrambled later on prior to being played (or reproduced).Thereafter, in case scramble/descramble algorithms are provided in thestorage controller 817, the storage controller 817 scrambles the datathat are being received once again and then stores the re-scrambled datato the third memory 818.

In yet another example, the descrambled broadcasting contents(transmission of which being restricted) are transmitted through thebroadcasting network. Also, information associated with theauthentication and descrambling of data in order to disable thereceiving restrictions of the corresponding data are transmitted and/orreceived through the telecommunications module 819. Thus, the receivingsystem is able to perform reciprocal (or two-way) communication. Thereceiving system may either transmit data to the telecommunicationmodule within the transmitting system or be provided with the data fromthe telecommunication module within the transmitting system. Herein, thedata correspond to broadcasting data that are desired to be transmittedto or from the transmitting system, and also unique information (i.e.,identification information) such as a serial number of the receivingsystem or MAC address.

The telecommunication module 819 included in the receiving systemprovides a protocol required for performing reciprocal (or two-way)communication between the receiving system, which does not support thereciprocal communication function, and the telecommunication moduleincluded in the transmitting system. Furthermore, the receiving systemconfigures a protocol data unit (PDU) using a tag-length-value (TLV)coding method including the data that are to be transmitted and theunique information (or ID information). Herein, the tag field includesindexing of the corresponding PDU. The length field includes the lengthof the value field. And, the value field includes the actual data thatare to be transmitted and the unique number (e.g., identificationnumber) of the receiving system.

The receiving system may configure a platform that is equipped with theJava platform and that is operated after downloading the Javaapplication of the transmitting system to the receiving system throughthe network. In this case, a structure of downloading the PDU includingthe tag field arbitrarily defined by the transmitting system from astorage means included in the receiving system and then transmitting thedownloaded PDU to the telecommunication module 819 may also beconfigured. Also, the PDU may be configured in the Java application ofthe receiving system and then outputted to the telecommunication module819. The PDU may also be configured by transmitting the tag value, theactual data that are to be transmitted, the unique information of thecorresponding receiving system from the Java application and byperforming the TLV coding process in the receiving system. Thisstructure is advantageous in that the firmware of the receiving systemis not required to be changed even if the data (or application) desiredby the transmitting system is added.

The telecommunication module within the transmitting system eithertransmits the PDU received from the receiving system through a wirelessdata network or configures the data received through the network into aPDU which is transmitted to the host. At this point, when configuringthe PDU that is to be transmitted to the host, the telecommunicationmodule within the transmitting end may include unique information (e.g.,IP address) of the transmitting system which is located in a remotelocation. Additionally, in receiving and transmitting data through thewireless data network, the receiving system may be provided with acommon interface, and also provided with a WAP, CDMA 1×EV-DO, which canbe connected through a mobile telecommunication base station, such asCDMA and GSM, and also provided with a wireless LAN, mobile internet,WiBro, WiMax, which can be connected through an access point. Theabove-described receiving system corresponds to the system that is notequipped with a telecommunication function. However, a receiving systemequipped with telecommunication function does not require thetelecommunication module 819.

The broadcasting data being transmitted and received through theabove-described wireless data network may include data required forperforming the function of limiting data reception. Meanwhile, thedemultiplexer 803 receives either the real-time data outputted from thedemodulating unit 802 or the data read from the third memory 818,thereby performing demultiplexing. In this embodiment of the presentinvention, the demultiplexer 803 performs demultiplexing on the enhanceddata packet. Similar process steps have already been described earlierin the description of the present invention. Therefore, a detailed ofthe process of demultiplexing the enhanced data will be omitted forsimplicity.

The first descrambler 804 receives the demultiplexed signals from thedemultiplexer 803 and then descrambles the received signals. At thispoint, the first descrambler 804 may receive the authentication resultreceived from the authentication unit 808 and other data required forthe descrambling process, so as to perform the descrambling process. Theaudio decoder 805 and the video decoder 806 receive the signalsdescrambled by the first descrambler 804, which are then decoded andoutputted. Alternatively, if the first descrambler 804 did not performthe descrambling process, then the audio decoder 805 and the videodecoder 806 directly decode and output the received signals. In thiscase, the decoded signals are received and then descrambled by thesecond descrambler 807 and processed accordingly.

As described above, the channel equalizer and method of processingbroadcast signal in receiving system according to the present inventionhas the following advantages. More specifically, the present inventionaccording to the present invention is highly protected against (orresistant to) any error that may occur when transmitting supplementaldata through a channel. And, the present invention is also highlycompatible to the conventional receiving system. Moreover, the presentinvention may also receive the supplemental data without any error evenin channels having severe ghost effect and noise.

Additionally, the transmitting system of the present inventionconfigures the enhanced data packet to include at least any one of theenhanced data, which include information, and the known data, which areknown by the transmitting system and the receiving system, and transmitsthe configured enhanced data packet. The receiving system used the knowndata for channel equalization, thereby enhancing the receivingperformance. Particularly, when the plurality of enhanced data packetsare transmitted in hierarchically differentiated areas, the CTR of eacharea is estimated in accordance with the characteristic of each area, soas to perform channel equalization, thereby enhancing the channelequalizing performance. Furthermore, the present invention is even moreeffective when applied to mobile and portable receivers, which are alsoliable to a frequent change in channel and which require protection (orresistance) against intense noise.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the present inventionwithout departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. Thus, itis intended that the present invention covers the modifications andvariations of this invention provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

1-26. (canceled)
 27. A method of transmitting a broadcast signal in atransmitter, the method comprising: performing, at a Reed-Solomon (RS)frame encoder, RS encoding on enhanced data to build an RS frame,wherein an RS frame payload including the enhanced data is RS encoded byadding RS parity bytes to each column of the RS frame payload, and theRS-encoded RS frame payload is cyclic redundancy check (CRC) encoded byadding CRC bytes to each row of the RS-encoded RS frame payload;encoding, at a block processor, data in the built RS frame, wherein thedata in the built RS frame are encoded to symbols, the symbols areinterleaved, and the interleaved symbols are converted to bytes;forming, at a group formatting unit, a data group including the encodeddata, wherein the formed data group includes a first, second and thirdarea of the encoded data, wherein the second area is located between thefirst and third areas and known data sequences are inserted in thesecond area; de-interleaving, at a data de-interleaver, data in theformed data group; and forming, at a packet formatter, data packetsincluding the de-interleaved data.
 28. The method of claim 27, furthercomprising: interleaving, at a data byte interleaver, data in the datapackets; and trellis encoding, at a trellis encoder, the interleaveddata.
 29. The method of claim 28, further comprising: multiplexing, at amultiplexer, field sync data and segment sync data with thetrellis-encoded data.
 30. The method of claim 27, wherein the formeddata group further includes signaling information indicating atransmission parameter for the formed data group.
 31. The method ofclaim 27, wherein the data in the built RS frame are encoded to symbolsat a coding rate of ½ or ¼.
 32. An apparatus for transmitting abroadcast signal, the apparatus comprising: a Reed-Solomon (RS) frameencoder configured to perform RS encoding on enhanced data to build anRS frame, wherein an RS frame payload including the enhanced data is RSencoded by adding RS parity bytes to each column of the RS framepayload, and the RS-encoded RS frame payload is cyclic redundancy check(CRC) encoded by adding CRC bytes to each row of the RS-encoded RS framepayload; a block processor configured to encode data in the built RSframe, wherein the data in the built RS frame are encoded to symbols,the symbols are interleaved, and the interleaved symbols are convertedto bytes; a group formatting unit configured to form a data groupincluding the encoded data, wherein the formed data group includes afirst, second and third area of the encoded data, wherein the secondarea is located between the first and third areas and known datasequences are inserted in the second area; a data de-interleaverconfigured to de-interleave data in the formed data group; and a packetformatter configured to form data packets including the de-interleaveddata.
 33. The apparatus of claim 32, further comprising: a data byteinterleaver configured to interleave data in the data packets; and atrellis encoder configured to trellis encode the interleaved data. 34.The apparatus of claim 33, further comprising: a multiplexer configuredto multiplex field sync data and segment sync data with thetrellis-encoded data.
 35. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the groupformatting unit is further configured to include in the formed datagroup signaling information indicating a transmission parameter for theformed data group.
 36. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the blockprocessor is further configured to encode the data in the built RS frameto symbols at a coding rate of ½ or ¼.